Librarian Mindy McGinnis’s debut novel, Not a Drop to Drink, shows us just what it would take to live outside of civilization, doing whatever it takes to survive just one more day. Sixteen-year-old Lynn has spent her life defending her most precious commodity: her freshwater pond. The world’s water supply has run dangerously low, and the remaining population is struggling to make it at any cost. Some are packed into cities with strict rules for living and the ever- present threat of cholera looming. Others, like Lynn and her mother, make their own way, eking out a living in the country.

Their only neighbor, a mysterious older man named Stebbs, is their last link to the way things used to be, when people helped one another during tough times. When Lynn finds herself injured and alone after a violent attack, Stebbs helps her find her purpose and her place in the world. Lynn’s mother always taught her not to trust strangers – shoot first, ask questions later. What Lynn didn’t know was how strangers can become family more precious than the water she has guarded and how family, though bound by blood, can be really nothing more than strangers. Readers of teen dystopian fiction will be sure to find themselves loving Not a Drop to Drink.